Bitcoin fell more than 7% on Friday, on a day in which several tweets from Tesla boss Elon Musk, in which he seemed to regret having broken with the cryptocurrency, were again moving the markets.
Tesla’s great position in bitcoin and Musk’s huge personal following on social media pushes crypto markets to the limit every time he tweets. This time, the price plummeted after posting the “#Bitcoin” tag with a heartbroken emoji and a photo of a couple discussing a breakup.
Musk continued to post a comic strip and responded “well” to an illustration of rival cryptocurrency dogecoin posted by the Coinbase platform. It was unclear if some of the tweets mean anything, if at all.
The billionaire had already said that Tesla will not sell his bitcoins, but his tweets were enough to shake markets that remain fragile after the May crash.
“When Elon Musk tweets any content related to crypto, the market … expects a reaction,” said Nick Spanos, co-founder of the Swiss project ZAP Protocol.
The bitcoin crash pushed it below its 20-day moving average to a low of $ 36,263, and subtracted some coverage from its gains so far this week, where it accumulates a 2% rise.
The second-largest cryptocurrency, ether, which tends to move in tandem with bitcoin, was down 8% at $ 2,626, although it was still on track to score its second consecutive weekly gain.
Dogecoin, perhaps the most sensitive cryptocurrency to Musk’s views, which helped a currency that was born as a hoax reach a multi-million dollar market valuation, also fell more than 10%, to about $ 0.36.
His Twitter account has affected other parts of the market: Samsung Publishing Co., a shareholder in the producer of the YouTube viral song “Baby Shark,” went up this week after Musk tweeted about the jingle.
